Seoul: War Memorial of Korea

After failing to see the olympics, we heard about "Team USA Winterfest" held at the army base, Yongsan in Seoul.  We decided to make a staycation out of the weekend and stay at the Dragon Hill Lodge at Yongsan.  We left right after church and checked into the hotel.  We had a few hours of daylight left, so we decided to check out the War Memorial of Korea, which is right outside Yongsan.

As you walk onto the grounds, you are immediately greeted by huge old military planes!  The kids loved seeing the planes, especially little Monster, who kept pointing and yelling, "plane, plane, look mommy, plane!"  Some of the planes had stairs so you could walk up and look into the cockpit.

After seeing the planes, we then went to the main walkway and were surrounded by huge statues of military men in bronze. The statues depicted the difference faces of war.  It was a humbling and special experience to see the statues and to think about the many wars that this little peninsula has undergone.

In the center of the bronze statues was the Korean War Monument.  This one looks almost like a spearhead cut in half.

There were so many more outdoor exhibits!  Next we saw a huge battle ship!  Kevin took the girls up to the ship and were able to explore, go into the different rooms, and walk around the deck.

We then continued along the grounds and saw many other exhibits which included tanks, missiles, boats, trucks, and cannons.

After spending more then an hour seeing all the neat exhibits outside, we found our way into the museum.  You walk into the museum by walking through the Galleries of the Enshrine Monument.  This is a really neat hallway that has plaques all over the walls with names of fallen soldiers and airmen.

The inside of the War Memorial of Korea is huge!  There must be four or five stories!  Each floor has so much to see.  I don't think we even saw half of what the Museum had to offer!  The best part, is that the museum is free and we can go back any time we are in Seoul.

There were huge Korean Drums decorated with amazingly beautifully bright art work.

We also saw models of war ships.

There were many bronze sculptures of the past Empires.

The kids really loved the outdoor exhibits, they did OK with the inside exhibits. There is so much to see and so much Korean War history.  I would like to go back, without kids, so I can take the time to read the plaques and learn more about Korea history, rather then just rush through and see all the cool boats and statues.  The kids asked if we can go back when its warmer so they can spend more time seeing all the stuff outside, so I'm pretty sure we will be making a second trip to the War Memorial of Korea!

Olympics! Objective #1: FAIL MISERABLY.

So we have been asked by many of our at home family and friends if we are going to the olympics. Truth is we didn't really want too, primarily because it was freezing cold, the distance is 4 hours from our home, the times are always at night for indoor events, and the prices were insane. People stood for hours and hours to get tickets for event outside ITT on base, and we decided that it just didn't seem like something we wanted to put our kids through. That was until peer pressure creeped in...

Multiple friends and coworkers kept sharing their experiences and how amazing it was, so on a Friday night we decided to suck up the potential inconvenience and just go. We knew we weren't going to get any event tickets as the timing was too late, but we wanted to see what we could do to at least go to Olympic Village and get "the experience", if you well. Oh we got an experience for sure...

We left Saturday morning early to head on out. After the wonderful experience of 2 hours of food prep, and running through every possible scenario with a two year old, we got on the road. Drive initially wasn't bad, but once out of Seoul and heading east toward Pyeongchang we started a series of complete road shutdowns, or near deadlocks. The distance initially was planned for 3.5 hours, which eventually turned into 5. Thank goodness for DVD players, but after 2 meltdowns from Monster, we felt as if we finally made it Zion.

Now you would think that it would be easy to find the olympic complexes, and in some ways I am sure that could have been the case. The main issue here was the government change that occurred 9 months before the Olympics hit. The last Korean President was removed from office for corruption, and landed the new president with the task to redoing all the planning and completion for the Olympics. Therefore, parking lots and shuttle systems were everywhere, but no parking was directly available close to the place we went. We tried finding the parking lot that had the appropriate shuttles, but to no avail. We finally found the olympic park, but were not able to park within a few miles of it.

After finding an obscure location to park, we walked about 30 minutes to the olympic park, grateful that it was only in the 20's that day and not lower like it was at the slope events. Mind you, by way of time hack, we were 6 hours into this ordeal now.

We walk up the hill, see the entrance and proceed with some sort of relief that we can say "We came, we saw, we did it." Not the case. We get to the entrance and find out that you are only allowed to go into the olympic park if you have a ticket for an event. We asked if we could purchase a ticket somewhere and we were referred back down the hill. Destroyed and frustrated by the Korean absolutism that exists here, we walked back down the hill to then be met with our next ray of sunshine.

Korea is a country experience that is always highlighted by the numbers. By this I mean that what you normally see at Costco as far as people go, double it, the amount of people going to an event (like a movie) triple it, the bus and subway; double it. We looked on the line only to estimate that there was a volume amount of people that would take roughly three hours in line to even get a pass. Why are there so many people trying to buy tickets on the day of, in 20 degree weather! Our hearts were shattered, now 7 hours in to this ordeal and no way of being able to attend a single portion of anything from the olympics. I looked around trying to find a way to stealthy smuggle my family over the border, but alas they must have taken a page from Potus and fortified all borders!

After gentle deliberation between us (sarcasm), we came to the realization that yes we literally just wasted 7 hours of our lives, we have frozen our children, and still have the daunting task of then returning home, void of any memories that we can look back on with a glimmer of happiness. We trekked back to the car across the arctic wasteland and started to drive back. Heather realized we were close to the beach, so we decided to stop and see what a Korean beach was going to be like.

Now to our surprise, yes it had sand, yes it had waves, but added a garnish across the entire beach were huge sculptures and things people had made. One was a skull, which being an oral surgeon made me finally feel something was right in the world.

The kids really wanted to take their shoes off and play in the ocean.  They just didn't understand that the water would be just as freezing as we all felt.

After snapping a few photos I won the parent of the year award but looking down at little dude who I thought was clothed enough, only to see him convulsing with cold! I felt so bad! I rushed him back to the car and fired up the heat to thaw him out. He didn't turn into full icicle but was close. Winner moment!

So we packed up and left. We stopped off for fuel and food and back on the road, only to then get caught in another freeway shutdown. This time though: we didn't move for 1.5 hours. Perfect topping to the ice cream sunday we were having. After finally being let go for good behavior we made a second pit stop to relieve all the hummingbird bladders in my girls, only to then have Big Sis top the night off by barfing in the car from motion sickness. Luckily she gave us fair warning and were able to secure a bag for her, but you can imagine the thoughts in Heather and I's mind. All we need now is a diaper blow out...

We got home at 10pm that night. Lets do the math: 15 hours of travel, 1 hour of walking in 20 degree weather, 4 frozen kids and frozen snuggies, barf in the car, and "0" olympic experiences. Floated a hundred times now across my brain: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Oh how we planned to fail on this...miserably!
-Kevin

OK, so I need to put in my two cents...  This is Heather-  Even though we failed at actualizing being able to see the Olympic Village or anything olympic, the beach really was neat!  The sculptures were impressive and original!  Yes, the kids were absolutely freezing, and true we drove a very long time to stand on a beach for 15 minutes, but oh well...  The pictures make me laugh, because if it wasn't for all the words, it would have looked like we were having the time of our lives.  But really, it's just me saying- "Smile!  Smile!  If you don't smile I am going to stand here until you do!".  Hahaha!  Oh how deceiving pictures can be.  I'd have to say the only true 'happy' smiles are the very first picture when we got in the car and were expecting a day at the Olympic Village.

Osan Daddy Daughter Dance

Having three daughters can sure be an amazing experience! I have been trying during their lifetimes to demonstrate the type of man they should date when they are older, which means that you take them out to do things that I do with Heather in order to help them learn by example what dating is. In Feb this year, right before Valentines Day, the 51st Force Support Squadron put on another amazing event. Now I am very partial of our medical group, but this squadron is the one that puts on lots of extra events for families to attend each year, with the focus to enhance the family through fun activities. Falls right in line with The Family: A Proclamation to the World!

This year, one of those events was for dads to take their girls out. Our neighbor is the squadron commander over the people who put this one, so he, another LtCol and myself all threw on our mess dress (military tuxedo for special occasions) and took our little girls out. This made it super fun for Little A in particular since many of those kids are the ones she skates around the hallway with. We danced, had an Italian dinner (to satisfy the Garfield cat in me) and had a really good time.

What stood out to me however, was when I got the tickets I was concerned that Big Sis might not want to go. She's in the awkward tween stage where she too old to be young but way to young to be old, and I honestly thought she might think that she was too old for something like this. Got the ticket anyway, but she surprised me when she said that she really wanted to go too. Made me glad that I am still cool enough to be seen in public with.

All it in all it was a great night! It made me grateful that just as much as the mission is important to the military, the mission of magnifying the member is just as critical, and this was a wonderful night together!

-Kevin

Kids Cafe: Dada Nori (Again)

Hi this is M&M here and I am going to tell you about my time at the Kids Cafe Dada Nori.

There was no school today, so Mom took us to a Kids Cafe called Dada Nori. We had so much fun! There was so many things to do there. Big Sis, Little A, and Monster quickly split up to have fun while mom was putting our stuff in the locker. We went with a few neighbors who also have daughter that are Little A's friends.

Monster went off to build something with the building blocks. Big sis went off to the ball canons while I went of to the building blocks. I quickly lost track off time while I built Monster a house! It was amazing.

After that me and Big Sis had races on the roller slide. We had so much fun sliding down the slide. Big sis and I even had races to see who could get up first but we weren't so successful. After all it was a roller slide.

Big Sis and I also had fun playing with the little blocks that look like a sand box and some huge dominos. We made a trail and made the dominos all fall.

Monster had lots of fun on the slide. He even found a Merri-go-round that he loved until it started to go too fast for his liking. He was yelling " NO LIKE, NO LIKE!"

After he got off, he ran to the Bumper cars. He raced away with Little A and her friends at his tail. You had to try to hit the targets on each of the other cars. The cars also had a system where it played music every time you turned. It got quit annoying after a couple runs.

Big Sis and I ALSO did a few runs and we were chasing each other's tails until our time was up.

Monster, Little A , and her friends all ran to the train to get a ride. They were shouting at us to go on, but Big Sis and I didn't want to because it was super slow and looked boring.

We went to the trampoline instead. Mom had fun just chilling with her friends. We stayed there for about 2 hours until returning home. We had lots of fun and can't wait to go again.

Brazilian Jujitsu

Hello, Big Sis here. Jujitsu is a very unique thing. It isn't anything like Taek-won-do, it's much much better the that. Jujitsu is a class that teaches you techniques that help little kids protect themselves. It isn't just kicks and punches, it's more like being on top of someone and defense.
Professor Ku-yae was the main instructor of the class.

Of course he had assistances. There were always about 3-8 of them. They taught the kids something new and we practiced it on the adults. We do a lot of stretching and warming up before class. I honestly thought that there was way to much time to warm-up than necessary. After warming up, we would learn the new technique of the day. We would usually practice it on adults first, and then assigned parters of equal heights to practice on again. But, my personal favorite part of jujitsu, was the ending activity. There where two options to always pick from. If there was 10 minutes left, we would do sparing, you know, fight each other. But, it's not the type of fighting you think, will maybe, depending on what you're thinking. You raise your hand if you want to volunteer and the professor chooses you and another volunteer that is about the same height. We basically tackle each other until your time is up, or until you, or your parter, is in a hold that you can't get out of. That was my favorite thing to do.

The second option is the fun game-like option. It is basically a game, just different. The adults are acting like lions that are hungry for lunch. The kids on the edge are the gazelles. The objective of the game is to not get caught by the hungry lions and be out of the game. The only rule was that you have to stay on all fours, or else you are automatically out. There are two versions of this game, the out option, or the zombie option!(the kids usually choose the zombie option) Zombie lions and gazelles was invented for halloween, but we played it all year long. The zombie version is where if you get caught by the lions, you become a lion along with the other lions. The last gazelle standing is the winner. You should try it sometime soon too you know.

Hi! This is M&M here. Big Sis and I  have done Jujitsu for the past 6 months. It is so fun!

We learn martial art moves like the neck lock, escaping from a back hold, and lots others that I can't remember. We do basics like the front roll, back roll, and fall-get-back-up move.

You earn stripes along the way to advance to the next belt. Sad thing is that you have to be a certain age to get a certain Belt. One of my class mates is 12 and he is only  gray-white stripe. That is only one belt above the white. (Our previous belt.) I did earn one stripe on my belt!  I was so happy!

The thing is that lots of people, and I mean LOTS of people get jujitsu mixed up with taekwondo. In taekwondo, you have to do a certain sequence to get to the next belt, While in jujitsu, you have to be a certain age to get the next belt. BOO! We learn so many things from our Professor Ku-yae. He teaches us everything we need to know about Jujitsu. We have four other instructors that teach us too. But they mostly show what we are learning that day, help us do it right, or spar us.

We spar like every other martial arts, but instead of kicking at the other person like they are a bad guy that needs to be kicked in taekwondo, we literally tackle them to the ground and try to win the fight (not hurtfully) because that's what you do in Jujitsu.

Me and Big Sis love jujitsu and are so happy that our mom found this martial arts for us.

Hawaii Day 6 (Part 2): Hawaii LDS Temple, Sunset & Fireworks

After a quick clean up we checked out of our Airbnb and ventured up the northeast side of the island to the highlight of the day: the Laie Temple. Being here in Korea, we are lucky to have a temple within an hour of us, but the difference is we are only able to catch an English session 1 time a month. The Laie temple is located in the Northeast side of Oahu, nestled close to BYU Hawaii and the Polynesian cultural center.

It was such a wonderful experience to go through the temple here. The day was beautiful, but it made us appreciate once again the knowledge, power and protection that the temple ordinances provide.

We left from there to spend our final night in the heart of Waikiki at our final hotel. We had hotel points we could use for this one, so we figured we would use it. The place was nice, but what we had planned for, was the great view of the Friday night fireworks that occur on the beach. We had a spectacular dinner at a restaurant on the beach - including any really tasty and fun unleaded speciality drinks!

Since the restaurant was right by the beach, Heather ran out to the beach to get her last sunset there!

We went out to the beach for the fireworks. After having been to a whole lot of different firework shows, quality sure varies. You can have your stadium of fire experience, or your at home experience, but this one was one of the coolest because of the setting - beachfront, sand, your best friend sitting next to you.

It was a perfect way to end the trip, and welcome in the thoughts that you have to go back home, back to work, back to juggling the chitlins!
-Kevin

Hawaii Day 6 (Part 1): Diamond Head Hike

So on our final day, after waterfalls, cut feet, hikes, kayaking, sunrises and sunsets, luaus and fun, we wrapped up our final day with a jam packed day of awesomeness. We woke up early (which is what we did everyday we were there) and drove over to Diamond Head National Park. Now you are probably asking, "if you are on vacation, why do you wake up so early to start your activities?"

Hawaii is packed, and these areas such as Hanuwa Bay and Diamond Head national park have parking lots that only fit a small amount of cars. So if you want to get there to do what you wanted too, you need to start early and beat the traffic. We started the morning at Diamond Head, a trail head that takes you on a small few mile hike to the top of the mountain.

Like most hikes in Hawaii, it starts off rather easy, but then you hit the ascent and climb climb climb. The best part though was seeing all the older people doing the hike, so if you get tired you just have to remind yourself of the 80 year old that is coming up on your tail!

The morning was beautiful, the hike took us a little over 2 hours up and an hour or so to get back down, and as you can see, the views were spectacular! You can see the whole west side of the island from the top, making you appreciate all the beauty of the island, and just how packed it really is.

We were so glad we went early too, since when we finally pulled out of the parking lot there were hundreds of cars waiting to get in so they could do the hike too. It was awesome.
-Kevin

Hawaii Day 5: Kayaking to the Mokes

Our neighbor in Korea came from Hawaii, and she highly recommended renting some kayaks, and kayaking to the Mokes. The Mokes are the Na Mokulua Islets off Lanikai Beach.  We packed our bag full of water and our lunches, and went off to find a kayaking rental company.  The company is a few hundred yards from the ocean, so they give you the kayaks on these little trailers and you pull the kayaks over to the ocean.  Kevin did the honors of tugging the kayak, we opts to do a double kayak, just to make it easier to stay together.

Once we got to the ocean, we had to figure out how to get the kayak into the ocean between the waves.  We have gone kayaking many times before.  We actually owned kayaks while living in Texas, so we considered ourselves pretty experiences kayakers, however the waves coming straight at use while trying to get out into the ocean, definitely humbled us.  It only took us a few tries, but we got out without flipping the kayak or getting too wet.

The kayak rental company said it would take more then an hour and half to get to the Mokes, but we made it in about an hour.  There were full waves, currents and rocks on our little adventure.  At one point you are directly above some monstrous coral reefs, and I felt we would smash into them at any second.  The ocean was crystal clear and absolutely mysteriously beautiful!

We made it to the Mokes and docked our kayak on the first try.  There isn't much that you can see on the Isle, because it is a bird sanctuary, the island is fenced off except for a little beach area.  We took about a 45 min rest as we ate lunch, relaxed and enjoyed the sun, waves, and each other.

As we were getting ready to launch back into the ocean, a seal came up on the the island to sunbathe! We were able to enjoy the seal from afar for a few minutes until we went back into the ocean.  The tide was in our favor, so the trip back we made extremely good time!  Directly in front of our docking beach was a second island, called the flat island.  We had plenty of time, so we made a second stop at the flat island.  This island is exactly as named, it is just a long flat strip of land in the middle of the ocean.  This island is also a bird sanctuary, was was fenced off except for the perimeter of the island.  We didn't see any birds, go figure.

We got back in our kayak, now feeling like professionals at launching in and out of the ocean!  We made it back to the beach in less than 15 minutes because Kevin and I would time our rowing just right so we would ride the waves.  It only took about three waves to make it back.  It was a thrill to paddle as fast as we could to keep up with the waves, then paddle as we kept at the very top of the wave, feeling our speed increase and the kayak rocking on top of the waves!

This was another great day in Hawaii!  We are both very much outdoor enthusiast, so we loved our day in the ocean and on the different islands!

Since our arms were pretty shot from kayaking all afternoon, we decided to relax next to the beach the rest of the evening.

We both enjoyed resting and reading next to the ocean until the sun went down.  It was a pretty good sunset to an amazing day!